Mythical creatures
In LY 539, a Sorreter named Mor had an idea. He asked a spirit if it would be possible to use magic to create mythical creatures on The Land. Since the earliest days, Landians had been interested in stories from other worlds, such as Earth, and many of these stories- particularly Märchen- included creatures that had, as far as anyone knows, never actually existed on those worlds. But it also seemed that while magic had existed in those worlds' stories, it had perhaps never been realistically practiced anywhere but the Land. So, Mor reasoned, why not use one element of off-world fantasy that was real here, to bring about another? The spirit he asked talked with other spirits about it, and it was realized that it might be done, using techniques which were in many ways more scientific than magical, but which were nevertheless sufficiently advanced that they might be seen as magic. Particularly since the technology to implement such science did not yet exist on the Land, and would therefore rely on magical means of implementation. The way in which all this works is understood only in the vaguest of terms by anyone outside of Sorret, and in fact it is too complex for even most Sorreters. But it involves a sort of cross-breeding of different animals which already exist on the Land (but without actual breeding, which is of course impossible between different species; the actual term is "genetic engineering"). In 575, the idea was first conceived that one might incorporate a certain degree of human intelligence into some of the mythical creatures that were created. (There would later be some debate as to how to classify such creatures, which came to be considered "semi-intelligent," according to a classification system established in 774. Though some people persist in considering this to be inaccurate and discriminatory; they say creatures are either intelligent or not, and such creatures would be considered fully intelligent by the United Villages of the Chaos, which passed the Sentient Rights Act in 913.) There was a moratorium imposed by Sorreters upon the creation of semi-intelligent creatures, in 580 (though some were later created in secret), at which time Sorreters also began relocating mythical creatures to (mostly) uninhabited regions of the planet. The moratorium extended also to the creation of any kind of dangerous creatures, regardless of intelligence. (Both aspects of the moratorium were inspired by the actions of the recently created Kappa.) The existence of mythical creatures, though occasionally reported by adventurers or explorers, wasn't officially known of by non-Sorreters until 595, when a scientist named Emil, from First Village, decided to organize an expedition to seek out such creatures. It was then that the Council of Magicks revealed what the Sorreters been up to, to the World Science Council. At that time, a complete list of mythical creatures that had so far been created was provided to the WSC, with preliminary notification being given whenever a new species was planned for creation, and the list being updated upon the success of such projects. There would also later be two fully intelligent races created by Sorreters (of course "creatures" is a term rarely applied to them). They include Elves (created secretly in 752) and Merfolk (created openly in 807). In 811, Arch-bishop Ignico of The Order officially banned the creation of all mythical creatures, whether intelligent, semi-intelligent, or non-intelligent. However, in 916, the existence of Vampyres was revealed to the world, having been created in secret sometime in the late 800s, by an independent sorcerer named Silas Des'Caina. List of mythical creatures (creatures are labelled with year of creation, and "NI" for non-intelligent or "SI" for semi-intelligent; fully intelligent races not included.) *Lyrits (NI; 545) *Kerberos (NI; 546) *Dragons (NI; 550) *Manticores (NI; 552) *Kelpies (NI; 553) *I-Dragons (SI; 575) *Gryphons (SI; 576) *Harpies (SI; 577) *Unicorns (SI; 577) *Kappa (SI; 579) *Kitsune (NI; 581) *Cyclopomonoceropegasoporphyranthropophagoi (NI; 581) *Ogres (SI; 582, speculative) *Qilin (NI; 589) *Tanuki (NI; 596) *Chupacabra (NI; 602) *Goblins (SI; 602, speculative) *Orcs (SI; 666) See also *Fauna of the Land Category:Magic